Bill would overhaul testing in California schools

3/19/10 - Rattana Khiev of King Elementary School in Long Beach monitors the class as her first grade students take a test behind "privacy boards.".Three-quarters of classroom teachers at the school, including Khiev, have been given layoff warning notices due to budget shortfalls..Photo by Steven Georges/Press-Telegram

Signaling their intention to “go all in” with a national curriculum, California’s education leaders outlined plans Thursday to immediately suspend most standardized assessments and replace them with a trial run of online tests tied to the more rigorous academic standards.

During a teleconference with reporters, officials discussed details of a newly amended bill making its way through the Legislature that would end the use of California Standards Tests this spring — a year earlier than planned.

Instead, districts with the technical capacity could opt to have their students take assessments being developed to align to the new Common Core standards. Half of the kids would be tested in English, the other half in math.

“We know the assessments are coming and we need to prepare students,” said Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, who authored AB 484. “We’re going all in for Common Core, so there’s the opportunity for teachers to master instruction of the Common Core and get professional development and for students to make the shift.”

State Board of Education president Michael Kirst said many educators had complained it was too difficult to focus on the new standards while trying to teach material covered by the CSTs. Common Core is designed to develop critical-thinking skills so there’s a stronger focus on analysis rather than memorization.

“We were caught in a dilemma, with two different tests going on and two different signals in terms of knowledge,” he said. “The need is to make a clean break.”

Standardized math and English tests have been administered since 1999 to students in third through eighth grades, as well as high school juniors. Suspending those assessments means the state would have to seek a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education since the test results are an accountability measure under the No Child Left Behind law.

Unlike the full NCLB waiver won last month by a group of eight districts, including Los Angeles and Long Beach Unified, the state waiver would be limited only to tests.

However, the test results won’t actually be used to measure a student’s academic performance, nor will the individual data be shared with districts, schools or parents. That’s because the assessments are designed to be only a “field test” of the 5,000 questions that may eventually become part of the final Common Core exams.

“It’s testing the tests,” said Deputy State Superintendent Deb Sigman, adding that districts could also use the experience to troubleshoot problems in their technology systems.

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AB 484 has been passed by the Assembly and is now being debated by the Senate, with a vote expected next week. Gov. Jerry Brown has issued a statement in support of the measure.

The bill originally called for 20 percent of the state’s students to take the field tests, but Bonilla said the bill was amended so that everyone had the chance to participate.

“This is the best way that we can be fair to all students and give them all the same opportunity for practice,” said Bonilla, a former high school teacher.

While the measure allows districts to “opt in” to the field tests, officials said they expect that nearly everyone will have the computers and bandwidth in place to participate in the trial run.

Savings from suspending the CSTs would be used to develop the online assessments, which would be given over a 12-week period in either English or math. That provision upsets Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy, who wants to ensure that students are familiar with both tests before the results become part of their academic record.

“This is the end of the CSTs and we have no data for at least a year, and that has its own set of dilemmas and worries,” he said in a phone interview. “Those could be offset if every single student in California could take field tests in both subjects.

“Without that, it’s very problematic on a civil rights level — which students get math, and which get English? … It seems like this is a policy that is not uniform and supportive of all youth.”

State officials said districts would have the option of administering both the English and math assessments but would have to cover the cost of nearly $6 per student. They noted that districts could use their share of the $1.25 billion earmarked for Common Core materials, technology and training to pay for the additional tests.

Deasy said he’ll ask the school board for the $3.6 million so Los Angeles Unified students can take both tests.

But officials in other districts said they’d be satisfied with the 50-50 testing split.

“You have to consider that this is just a field test — it’s not the real deal,” said Arturo Ortega, an assistant superintendent for Baldwin Park Unified. “We also have local assessments guiding instruction.”

And Susan Cuseo, instructional director for Burbank Unified, said the cost of the additional tests made it prohibitive.

Deasy also expressed concern about the lack of student test data that is a critical part of other district programs, such as its English-learner Master Plan, which was triggered by a federal rights investigation and impacts nearly one-third of its 600,000 students. It also raises questions about the teacher evaluation system, which was revised last year under a court order to factor in test results.

However, state officials downplayed the lack of individual test data, saying that districts could offer their own assessments as accountability measures.

Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said any new system would have to be negotiated, based on the type of information available.

“We want the date — whatever it is — to be used for (professional) improvement, and not judgment and punishment.”